Jalapeno, poblano and serrano peppers are all deseeded and finely chopped before being mixed with pork, toasted cumin, Mexican oregano and cilantro. It takes forever to make it, but we do it because we like you and you like this.

One of our spiciest sausages, made with pork and seed-in Serrano peppers, mango powder and habanero powder.

Franch Onion

Just like the soup except you won't get bored with it after you break through that top layer of cheese. Made with beef and pork, caramelized onions, thyme, beef stock and Swiss cheese.

Baked Potato

Just like the loaded up baked potatoes you always get from the Wendy's late-night drive-through (we see you). Potatoes, bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, chives, pork.

Bacon Sausage

There's no bacon in this sausage, this sausage is bacon if bacon was a sausage. Follow? The pork in this sausage is cured like our bacon, stuffed like a sausage and smoked. It will blow your mind.

Serrano & Cheddar

A spicy smoked sausage made with seed-in serranos, cheddar, elegance and mustard. Eat it in a bun, with more mustard. Do it.

Kasekrainer

An Austrian street-food staple, made with beef, pork, bacon. We smoke it and add cubes of Swiss cheese. Eat it drunk or sober, or drunk.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Like your mom used to make on special occasions, but instead of stuffing the cheese and ham into that tiny chicken-pocket we went ahead and shoved it all into a casing. Chicken, pork, ham, swiss cheese.

raised in New York state without any hormones, antibiotics, or other medications. Our two main beef farms have 300-400 head of cattle that rotationally graze on 1,000 acres or more of lush, upstate grass that isn't sprayed or fertilized with chemicals.

We only buy whole beef directly from the farmer.

Those cows are sent to small, family-owned-and-operated slaughterhouses that kill a maximum of 25-30 beef per day. Before arriving at the shop, our beef carcasses hang at the slaughterhouse for a minimum of 1 ½ weeks; even the most inexpensive cuts you purchase from us are truly dry-aged!

Pork

The hogs we buy are predominately Berkshire breed

with a smattering of Tamworth, Old Spot, and Mulefoot breeds. Using olde-timey (and rare!) pig breeds not only helps preserve bio-diversity, but also slows maturation, therefore producing a better taste compared with commercially raised hybrid hogs. These pigs are much heartier and much better at being left alone to graze and roll in mud than the newer factory farm breeds.

Like our beef, all of our pork is slaughtered humanely at small, local, family-owned slaughterhouses.

Within just a few days of slaughter, we receive the pigs at our door, ensuring that your hard earned money is being spent on the freshest pork possible!

Lamb

Most of our lamb is actually slightly older Mutton or Hogget hair sheep breeds that are grass-fed in New York state without hormones or antibiotics.

We choose to buy older sheep because they are better marbled and more flavorful than younger lambs. Because of our careful breed selection of sheep, they are never gamey, as these breeds do not produce lanolin. This also makes our sheep much more comfortable during hot New York summers - can you imagine wearing a sweater all summer long?

The family-run farm never uses antibiotics or growth hormones but a custom chicken feed instead, to ensure that we know exactly what those birds are eating. Cascun Farm also has their own poultry processing facility on the farm where the same care is given to processing and packaging our birds as it is to raising them.

The other chickens we sell come from a co-op of small

free-range chicken farmers in Quebec, who collectively own the most advanced air-chilled processing facility in North America. These chickens are raised without hormone or antibiotics and are blast chilled after slaughter instead of water chilled (which can add up to 15% more weight to a 3-4 pound bird). This allows you to get more meat for your money.

Farms

Kinderhook Farm

Located in beautiful Ghent, NY, Kinderhook is our flagship beef farm with over 1200 acres of land. Farmer Lee Ranney has been raising grass-fed Black Angus and Red Devon cattle for over 30 years with his wife Georgia. They also pasture raise lamb and heritage hogs with a little help from their guard dogs Sarge and Ollie. Did we mention they have a guard donkey too? Well, if you don't believe us you can arrange a farm stay: kinderhookfarm.com.

Gibson Family Farms

For all the hype and despair surrounding the current state of farming in the U.S., Dustin Gibson is doing something about it. Barely 30 years old, instead of leaving the family farming business, Dustin is expanding it. Dustin raises 100% grass-fed Angus beef and Berkshire, Tamworth, and Mulefoot hogs for us on farms that he's bought or leased from older famers who are about to retire in and around Eagle Bridge, NY. His beef is raised on lush NY state grass and his hogs lounge in acres of wooded shade where they happily root for acorns, grubs, and whatever else they can get their hocks on. Dustin likes rainbows, long walks in the park, tractors and Twisted Tea.

Sir William Berkshire

Bruce Conover's family has a long farming history in New York state. How long? They were farming in northern Manhattan in the early 1800's when local food wasn't just a buzz word, it was the only option. Bruce raises 100% Berkshire hogs for us in Craryville, N.Y., and feeds them grain that he grows himself. Bruce's Berkshires have lots of smooth, creamy fat and are well-marbled, meaning you don't have to look any further to find all the flavor you want in a pork chop.

Cascun Farms

Cascun Farms is a family-run farm situated on 125 acres of picturesque land in the rural farming community of Green, N.Y. Striving to produce the highest quality meat, Cascun raises and processes their chickens and rabbits on custom feed made without any antibiotics, growth hormones, or animal by-products.

What Is the Meat Hook, Exactly?

The existential question of "What we will do with our lives?" is a pretty hard one to answer.

Luckily, through a series of happy accidents, Brent Young and Benjamin Turley ended up with the unlikely solution of owning a butcher shop. While they weren't exactly sure how they were going to pull off opening a shop, both Ben and Brent did know what they wanted it to be: fun, unpretentious, accessible and, most importantly, financial sustainable.

While finance never sounds especially romantic, it takes more than good feelings and high moral ideals to save the world.

At The Meat Hook we are really in the business of paying our farmers and to that end we strive each and every day to simply do it right. From chatting up regulars at the counter to visiting the farms we source from, everything we do is for the purpose of properly representing our farmers' hard work, deep knowledge, and quality animals. Without these outstanding and truly skilled men and women, we're just another bunch of jerks selling pork chops. We never forget that.

Your Food Dollar at the Meat Hook

The best way to understand the difference between spending your money at our shop and the supermarket is to look at how much of every dollar you spend ends up in the hands of the farmer who raises your meat.

When you buy a family pack of steaks at your neighborhood chain store, about 11 cents of each dollar you spend goes to the farmer.

Where does the rest go? Multi-national corporations, out-of-state distributors, giant packing houses, and all manner of middle men in the complex supply chain that brings that package of meat, thousands of miles from where it was raised, onto the shelves, and into your hands.

At The Meat Hook

32 cents of every dollar (roughly 300% more) goes directly to our farmers, giving them a financial incentive to continue to properly raise local animals on pasture. Where does the rest go? Not only does it go towards small, local, family-owned slaughterhouses and trucking companies that bring the animals from slaughter to our door, but also necessary evils like our rent and taxes. Last but not least, your dollar also goes toward our employees, who make The Meat Hook worth shopping at.

The important thing here is that all of this dollar (well, except the part that goes to pay federal taxes)

Stays in our local economy creating more and better jobs. Ultimately, we hope that it leads to more people who want to buy local meat.

Our Butchers

Ben Turley

Ben is the Sausage Maestro. He has a history in kitchens, mostly Italian. He's been butchering for 7 years. He thinks he makes the best mortadella of all time, but no one seems to care. Ben is one of the owners of The Meat Hook.

Brent Young

Brent will do more push ups than you. He will beat you at arm wrestling. He will also make you the best chicken liver mousse you've ever tasted. Brent worked in many kitchens, including Diner. He's been a butcher for 8 years. Brent is one of the owners of The Meat Hook.

Leah Wolfe

Leah hails from Colorado, where she earned a BA in Spanish, and started her butchering career at Western Daughters. She can make you the best salad you've ever had and we're not sure how she does it. Ask Leah about her favorite serial killer.

David Diaz

David originally came to us as a porter and quickly worked his way up to head butcher. He's the fastest knife in the shop by some measure. He makes an amazing chicken tortilla soup, loves playing video games, and is all around a super nice guy . David is our favorite bro.

Jon Perri

What we don't know about Jon Perri could fill volumes. Jon claims to be from Denver, CO but he's got no way to prove it, and his story just doesn't seem to add up. Either way, the man's good with a knife and can finish a beer in 4 seconds flat.

Mike White

Mike worked with us a few years ago and after many travels - mostly to the West Village - he's back! Mike is always positive, hard-working, and doing his best to make the shop better everyday. When he's not doing all of those things, he's just a really nice guy with some misguided opinions about fruit.

Sunny Sanchez

Sunny hails from L.A. where she worked at Lindy & Grundy as well as Belcampo. She comes off as tough, but underneath she really loves puppies, so she's pretty much just like everyone else in the shop. The background in her phone is an otter in outer space. It's "Otter Space". Sunny will out karaoke you.

Michael Manes

Kansas City native, Portland, Oregon transplant, Michael comes to us from Olympia Provisions where he worked as a Salumi King for many years. Michael loves making sausage just as much as he loves Royals baseball. And he loves Royals baseball.

Sam Casner

Sam tucks his t-shirts into his khakis. Hes a good midwestern boy who comes to us from a packing house in Kansas. Sam is always on time. Sam hates waste, loves coffee, beer, and cutting meat. Ask Sam about country music.

Braxton Schell

Braxton is known around the shop as Bobby Michelle. If you don't know you better ask somebody.